PreREview: Watchmen
Here it is, folks. The 800-pound gorilla of comic book movies--WATCHMEN!
Watchmen - Teaser Poster
June 22nd, 2008 - I don't know if everyone quite realizes what this means. This is the holy grail of modern comic books, made into a movie, finally. After all the stops and starts, all the drama, all the heartache, all the other Alan Moore properties ripped from the pages and summarily gang-raped onscreen (though "From Hell" really is pretty good), THIS is his greatest work, arguably THE greatest comic book of all time, translated to a live-action, big-budget movie. And there have been worries, to be sure. I don't love the costumes. I don't see how it's going to work as a mass-theater-chain-friendly 2 hour popcorn movie. I don't know how I feel about the guy who's basically the current poster boy for style-over-substance Hollywood movie making directing the most finely-honed, ingeniously crafted, philosophical/political/diabolical comic story ever told. This isn't a simple action story, folks, this is big. Multi-faceted. Complex. Dark. Violent. Brilliant.
So this trailer has to work against ALL OF THAT. This trailer has to say to the world "I get it. I know the source material. I will respect it. I will do it justice. I will not let you down." And the question on everyone's lips is, of course, does it?
No. It does not let you down. Now let me see if I can figure out how it doesn't...
The very opening--whatever, typical. Dark hard-hitting percussion. Clouds. Logos. The usual. Then the first comic-inspired image: the man who will be Dr. Manhattan, surrounded by erratic energy arcs, calling to be let out of his impromptu prison. Something's wrong. Intensity--right off the bat. Then some titles: "In 2009"--amongst gears and machinery (and on a side note--what's with this lately? What is this motif? Hellboy II just did it and I feel like I've seen it in a few other movies. What's the point? It makes sense for Watchmen--Dr. Manhattan is known for disassembling clocks and watches, etc.--but it's an over-used tool, I think. But I digress.)...then a shot of Billy Crudup looking at his arm, hair standing up, energy arcing across it--and here we see the first clear evidence of copying comic panels to a T; not just in composition, that's the easy part. But in Crudup's expression. He's out of focus, sure, but he keeps the wide-open-mouth-agape look just a little longer than is normal, and I think that's a tip of the hat to the original comic; it's a reflection of the still, single image of a comic panel, and already I start to see the thinking behind this movie. And I'm liking it.
Then more titles: "Everything we know will change"...then Crudup holding a watch and standing in the middle of a fearsome-looking electrical field which slowly, fearsomely, starts to rip him apart. And not only is it a thrilling image, one I'm surprised they got past the MPAA, but it's also a brilliant evocation of the comic. It's the EXACT way he rips apart in the comic--we see his bones, his body blackens, the bits of flesh and cloth flying off in shreds, the energy burst just bright enough to let us see these meticulous details--and it's confirmed: this IS the comic brought to life. This IS as close as you can get. With this scene, at least.
I also think it's a particular bit of genius that they're beginning the trailer with this scene; this is the event in the comic that DOES change everything; this is the inciting incident that changes the comic's (and movie's) world. So starting it anywhere else would have been dishonest to the comic, and I never would have thought of that if they didn't present it this way. Genius.
Then Nite Owl's ship bursting out of the water, the bright NY skyline (circa alternate 1986) in the background, the blink-and-you'll-miss-'em Twin Towers featured prominently center frame, and this is where I'm all of a sudden saying 'wow. Solid.' I can see the the 300-esque saturated-CGI look of it, and instead of being frustrated that I noticed it, I LOVE it. It works. It flows, it fits. And that is a shot that also makes me think: "THIS is how you make this appealing to mass audiences. You show them the cool shit that is in the story, as well. Sure, you pander a bit, you make it look like a superhero movie, one like you've never seen before, one that's specifically stylized, but still exciting, still fresh, still urgent. This is how you make this work."
And we start noticing the Smashing Pumpkins song here, the dark tone, the slow methodical beat...this sounds sexy. This sounds compelling. This is what they did with the '300' trailer, too, and that worked brilliantly; they showed off the cool-as-anything composed shots all to the mysterious, driving tone of Nine Inch Nail's "Just Like You Imagined", and we were THERE. Hooked. Well the Pumpkin's "The End Is The Beginning Is The End", I feel, is another genius choice. It's brooding, it's intense, and the title and lyrics fit the tone of the movie--and hint at its overall theme--brilliantly. Another great choice.
BOOM! Someone-a woman-comes crashing down through a ceiling in a dark burning building. Yes. THIS is the kind of thing that gets asses in seats. This is why you come to superhero movies. Then we see: a pretty lady! Fair enough. Then we're behind a guy in a cape jumping up and kicking a rioting prisoner in the face (fittingly, in a rioting prison), and here we notice that director Zach Snyder has not strayed far from his 300 roots in the slowing-action-down-speeding-it-up-again territory he seems to love. And I know that people will have problems with this. I know that people DO have problems with this. But I don't, and let me tell you why.
Besides the fact that it looks undeniably cool and does great things to capes onscreen (and has that oh-so-important 'Fratboy Factor' that will make even jaded, everything-sucks, impress me Fratboys think it's cool), it works brilliantly at replicating the comic panels that are the film's obvious inspiration. It gives us pause, it makes us notice the composition, it acts as a call back to the source material and says "See? The comic has this. The comic is this cool. This is just the 3-D version. Go read the comic!". And far more than poor Ang Lee's misguided attempt to evoke comic-book-isms in the much-maligned 2003 "Hulk" movie, what with the silly mutliple-panels-on-screen-thing, this technique honors the comics and enhances their impact. This works for the film, works for the tone and the pacing and the cool factor, AND serves as a shout-out to the comics fans: "Remember how cool this page is?". I think it works. I think, in a work that is this slavish to the source material, it's NECESSARY. And again, I wouldn't have thought this should be done until I saw it. Great stuff.
This is of course then repeated in the next awesome shot--the Comedian being thrown violently out of a window, the shards of glass flying everywhere, just like it is in the comics. Beautiful. Really, simply, impactful and genuinely, darkly pretty. Then a push-in to Ozymandias (still hate that costume) and a musical note that you'd only catch if you watch this trailer a stupid amount of times, as I have: "now the kingdom comes...", and I have to applaud Zach Snyder and the trailer team again, for reaching out to us and saying 'yes, Watchmen fanatics, we get it, we can hint at it to you without giving it away to the uninitiated, we know what works.'.
Oh, and now the beautiful, breathtaking shot of poor Jon Osterman, glowing blue and showing us his tortured skeleton, smashing up against the wall and exploding in a halo of blue energy into a poor janitor, and the choice of intriguing, question-raising shots continues; I'm left to wonder, if I hadn't read the comic, how I WOULDN'T want to see this movie with a shot like that in it...
The Owl ship taking off, the flame of Rorschach's impromptu flamethrower, and we're thinking, this is going to be brutal. Then that pretty girl again, walking down the stairs, in that sexy costume, and this is our first full view of Silk Spectre II, followed closely by a shot of Doc Manhattan--or three of him actually--looking longingly just off-camera. Nice little tie-in to their relationship troubles, there...and our first look at Doc Manhattan is...well...I don't want to say underwhelming, but...it's just...wrong? I feel like he's too beefy. Too muscular. Doc Manhattan is supposed to be svelte and lithe; the musculature of someone who's re-composed himself from energy with nothing extra, just what's required of the perfected male body. And here we have a bodybuilder. It irks me. But they nailed how he looks both solid and composed of energy. It's like he's made of quarks, and it works.
Then the Nite Owl dramatically lands in the middle of a street, and I'm thinking: 'meh'. Been there, done that. Batman does it better. And it still looks like someone slowly lowered him on a rope or something. When are they going to fix that in these movies?'. Then a rainy, sad military funeral. The American flag on a coffin (hinting at the story's potential for American destruction...), the Comedian in Vietnam with his flamethrower and amused look, the riot in the street (more flames!), dipping to black and silence...
Then someone saying "God help us all", and BOOM! Doc Manhattan is floating and glowing! Still looks way too much like a bodybuilder! And I'm pretty sure that's a penis bump so I guess that's how they're dealing with how to show his package in the movie! They'll be vague about it! The usual titles! Manhattan and Spectre kissing! Comedian punching a hole in a wall! Someone being thrown up against a wall! Ozymandias swiftly and very superheroic-looking-ly defending himself against an intruder! Nite Owl freaking out! Manhattan sublimely disintegrating a Vietnamese soldier! The Comedian on the Nite Owl's ship above the rioters! Some dark voice intoning: "The world will look up and shout 'Save us'"...LIGHTNING! Awesome shot of Rorschach! A closeup that doesn't do his mask justice! The voiceover continues: "...and I'll whisper, 'No.'"!
Then a really gorgeous, movie-defining shot of Doc Manhattan and Silk Spectre in his clockwork tower on Mars, all spinning glass and gears coming up out of the Martain sand, and at first I'm tempted to say 'that looks like CGI', but yknow what? It doesn't. It looks like huge glass clock works tumbling and turning and moving--it looks like it should look. It looks beautiful.
Then zooming out of the clockwork CGI titles and I guess that would explain their ultimate meaning--it ties in thematically to the book, to Osterman's obsession with precision and making things work (which ultimately hints at his doomed relationship with the lady in tights), and it's a fitting cap to an impressive package. This trailer works.
As a Watchmen fan, I'm satisfied. They're doing it justice. As a movie fan, March 6th 2009 can't come soon enough. This looks like it is going to rock, and rock hard. It's a superhero movie, sure, but it's dark, and serious, potentially apocalyptic and epic--it's got the straightforwardness of the recent Batman films, and a splash of spectacle with hints of real cinematic grandeur. Who watches the Watchmen? After that trailer...everyone.
8.5 out of 10
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